Can celebrity endorsements affect political outcomes? evidence from the 2008 US democratic presidential primary

Craig Garthwaite; Timothy J. Moore

doi:10.1093/jleo/ewr031

Can celebrity endorsements affect political outcomes? evidence from the 2008 US democratic presidential primary

Craig Garthwaite^*, Timothy J. Moore

^*Corresponding author for this work

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30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Identifying the effects of political endorsements has historically been difficult. Before the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Barack Obama was endorsed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey. In this article, we assess the impact of this endorsement using, as measures of Winfrey's influence, subscriptions to her magazine and sales of books she recommends. We find that her endorsement increased Obama's votes and financial contributions, and also increased overall voter turnout. No connection is found between the measures of Oprah's influence and previous elections, nor with underlying political preferences. Our results suggest that Winfrey's endorsement was responsible for approximately 1 million additional votes for Obama.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	355-384
Number of pages	30
Journal	Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization
Volume	29
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewr031
Publication status	Published - Apr 1 2013

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ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Law

Cite this

Garthwaite, C., & Moore, T. J. (2013). Can celebrity endorsements affect political outcomes? evidence from the 2008 US democratic presidential primary. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 29(2), 355-384. https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewr031

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10.1093/jleo/ewr031